The current water situation in the region of La Axarquía, the main tropical fruit production area in Spain, alongside the Costa Tropical de Granada, is “highly concerning.” At the beginning of September, it was “the same as or worse than” in the previous campaign, and the necessary rainfall was yet to come, with the exception of the mid-spring parenthesis and that has been the “lifeline” for the little reserves held by the sector at the moment.
The Chairman of the Asociación Española de Tropicales (AET), Álvaro Palacios, assures that “the situation continues to be unreservedly bad, meaning that, if there is no change, it will continue to affect the mango and avocado production.”
The sector closed the 2023/24 avocado campaign with around 60,000 tonnes, which meant a decrease of 15% compared to the previous year, in which the sharpest drop took place with farms and harvests being abandoned. With regard to mangos, as it is a crop that is hardier against weather conditions with increased temperatures and a shortage of rainfall, the final balance for the campaign reached around 12,000 tonnes. Now, the forecasts for the 2024/25 season indicate that the mango harvest will reach similar figures. And, with respect to avocados, the campaign will once again be complicated, but they expect the figures to be similar to those for 2023/24.
In spite of the fact that the regional governments have made achieved some advances, such as the connection of tertiary channels, with regenerated water from WWTS’s being made available, the need to speed up the infrastructures has become urgent. As stated by Álvaro Palacios: “these solutions continue to be insufficient and we are still waiting for more specific advances, needed to arrive with the speed required by the fields, which are up against the ropes.” The processing of the Vélez Málaga Desalination Plant is “basic, but it is still too slow, and we are talking about deadlines that get delayed over time. Regarding the concession of the emergency irrigation that they quoted, we have to say that the 3 cubic hectometres that have been granted from La Viñuela are arriving through the distribution that has been made to the irrigation communities.”
For some years now this problem has always been the same: “we come up against water infrastructures and a hydraulic policy that undermine and limit us. And this is a handicap because it prevents us from growing and, therefore, from generating wealth, employment and added value to a thriving sector. Accordingly, we must continue to fight and to demand the infrastructures that we need from the regional governments. Mango and avocado consumption continues to rise in the EU, as it does in Spain, and we must make the most of our advantageous position to respond to this growing demand,” the chairman of the AET concludes.
185 M€ in Andalusian avocado exports
The world market is fluctuating. For some years now, Colombia has become one of the main agents for export. Consumption is rising in Asia. In Mexico, there are producers who are not renewing the certificates necessary to export to Europe due to the high costs and the prices they obtain for avocados… A situation which, in the view of the chairman of the AET, should mean an extraordinary opportunity for the Andalusian and Spanish producers. “It proves that we could be starting in an advantageous situation, as we are the main producing region in the European Union. We could commit a great deal more to this product in Andalusia and in Spain and continue with the avocado crop.”
The value of Andalusian avocado exports between January and May 2024, increased by 9.8% compared to the same period in the previous year, reaching 185.2 million euros, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing, Water and Rural Development of the Andalusian Regional Government. Regarding the volume, an increase of 11.9% was recorded, making a total of 54,397 tonnes.
The value of avocado sales abroad during the first five months of this year made up 2.4% of the total value of all the Andalusian exports in the same period, and 82.4% of the Spanish exports of this subtropical fruit.
In 2023, Andalusia exported a total of 110,764 tonnes of avocados, reaching a value of 340.7 million euros on the destination markets.
Avocado exports from the provinces of Granada and Malaga gather together 97.5% of the total from Andalusia. Up to May, 2024, in Malaga they totalled a value of 156.4 million euros. In 2021, sales reached 309.9 million euros; in 2022, 298.8 million euros, and in 2023, they reached 295.7 million euros.
Producers from Granada, on the other hand, sold fruit for a value of 24.1 million euros from January to May. In 2021, the exports from this province reached a value of 33.7 million; in 2022, 42.7 and in 2023 they totalled 30.3 million euros.
The main clients of the Granada province between January and May were France (7.2 million euros), the Netherlands (6.8), Germany (3.1), Finland (2.9) and Denmark (1.03).
The sales from Malaga on the same dates concentrated on France (73.6 million euros), the Netherlands (30.4), Germany (19.9), United Kingdom (7.99) and Austria (5.9).
